World update

Mexican soldiers kill 3 in gunbattle

ACAPULCO, Mexico – Three gunmen are dead after a shootout with Mexican army troops in the southern state of Guerrero.

State authorities said police found two assault rifles, two pistols, a grenade and a bag of what appeared to be cocaine in the suspects' vehicle.

Mexico has been hit by a rising wave of drug-fueled violence, and officials estimate that more than 5,300 people have died this year.

Associated Press

Australian once held
at Guantanamo free

SYDNEY, Australia – An Australian and former Guantanamo Bay inmate became a free man today for the first time in seven years when the final restrictions stemming from terrorism allegations ended.

David Hicks, 33, an ex-kangaroo skinner and Outback cowboy, spent more than five years in U.S. custody at the military detention center in Cuba before striking a plea deal that returned him home to Australia to serve a nine-month sentence.

Hicks spent 5½ years in captivity without trial at Guantanamo Bay before pleading guilty to supporting terrorism in a plea agreement.

He was captured by the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in late 2001 and handed over to U.S. troops invading the country to unseat the Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Associated Press

Lebanon picks first
ambassador to Syria

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon chose its first ambassador to Syria yesterday, the latest step toward normalizing relations since the neighboring countries agreed this year to establish diplomatic ties.

Information Minister Tarek Mitri made the announcement after the Cabinet approved the nominee. He told reporters the government would not disclose the ambassador's name until Syria approved the choice.

Relations between the long-feuding neighbors, which both gained independence from France in the 1940s, reached a turning point in August when they agreed to establish ties and demarcate their contentious border. The agreement marked a final break in Syria's longtime dominance over its smaller neighbor.

Relations between the two Arab nations have been lopsided in Syria's favor since the 1970s, when Syria sent its army into Lebanon, which was engulfed in civil war. Syria maintained control for 30 years.

Associated Press

Man slain in U.S.
buried in Ecuador

CUENCA, Ecuador – An Ecuadorean immigrant beaten to death in the United States in an apparent hate crime was carried to his grave yesterday in a town that has seen thousands of others seek their fortunes abroad.

Jose Sucuzhanay, 31, a real estate agent, was attacked Dec. 7 by a group of men who kicked and beat him with an aluminum baseball bat, shouting anti-Latino and anti-gay slurs as he walked arm in arm with his brother near his Brooklyn home. He died after five days in a coma.

New York City police are still searching for three suspects, and the NYPD's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the slaying.